New details emerge of SunCruz-linked bribe to ex-lawmaker

[Scurrilous]

New court documents provide fresh details of a SunCruz-linked bribe to an ex-Ohio congressman who faces sentencing soon.

<snip>

"One-time powerful lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave a $10,000 campaign bribe to an Ohio congressman for his public words of praise for Abramoff's business partner in the purchase of a South Florida fleet of gambling ships more than six years ago.

Specific details of the political bribe linked to the SunCruz Casinos sale were disclosed for the first time this week in court papers filed by Justice Department lawyers for the upcoming sentencing of convicted former Republican Congressman Bob Ney."

Ney, 52, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in October and faces sentencing in Washington on Jan. 19.

Abramoff, who is at the center of the ongoing corruption investigation in Washington, turned himself in last November to serve about six years in prison for lying to lenders to obtain a $60 million bank loan to buy the SunCruz fleet, based in Dania Beach.

Abramoff and his SunCruz business partner, Adam Kidan of New York, who is serving a similar prison sentence, used that money to buy the gambling fleet for $147 million from Fort Lauderdale tycoon Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis in fall 2000. (Boulis would be slain months later, but Abramoff and Kidan have not been implicated in any way in that case.)"

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16395700.htm

[truthisfreedom]

1. This stuff just HAS to lead to bushco.

You know there's a connection somewhere.

[MADem]

2. It's likely in those hidden White House Secret Service access files NT

[Tuesday_Morning]

3. these guys....

During negotiations in the SunCruz deal, Abramoff asked his lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon, who had once worked for ex-GOP leader Tom DeLay, to do him a favor. That's when Ney entered the picture.

Scanlon contacted Ney's chief of staff, Neil Volz, to arrange to have Ney disparage Boulis and his company in the Congressional Record. Scanlon drafted a statement that Ney put into the Record in March 2000, saying: ``There are a few bad apples out there who don't play by the rules and that is just plain wrong. One such example is the case of SunCruz Casinos, based out of Florida.''

The motive: ''To soften the negotiating position'' of Boulis and ''secure a better deal'' for Abramoff and his business partner Kidan, according to the court documents filed Wednesday.